Mouse guards

Well I harvested my last super. After having SHBs completely ruin a super of honey, I was able to salvage the last super by cutting out darker areas of honey that was fermented. I ended up with about a gallon of good honey. About all that is left for me to do is put in an entrance reducer and cross my fingers for winter. My friend told me I should wrap the reducer in aluminum coil stock to keep the mice out of the hive. What do others do to keep the mice out? After my SHB nightmare I am not holding out much hope of my colony surviving the winter but at least I can keep the mice at bay. :cry:

positon of the hive and the integrity of the wood wares are the two critical parameters here. if you have lot of gaps a entrance reducer will not be enough to keep the mice out of the hive. those hives I have on stands never have mice problems. those hives close to the ground on pallets do show some signs of mouse damage.

only had mice once and found it in the coner of bottom board, entombed in propolis and wax and about 300 stings almost totally dried down and hairless. This was up north in upstate NY found it durning pre-spring clean up lol

I have a standard wooden entrance reducer with the small hole open. I have one of the expandable BM mouse guards with the holes in it. The holes look big enough for a bee to get through. My question is, though, can the bees get trash out through those holes? I read where they take dead bees, trash, etc., out when they can. Is it a balance between big enough for trash but small enough to prevent mice?

slowmodem writes:
My question is, though, can the bees get trash out through those holes?

tecumseh:
I would guess (without seeing the device you are using) yes. I do know that if you totally close off the front entrance and place a queen excluder above the brood nest (replicating Jerry Hayes 'is a queen excluder a honey excluder' experiement) the trash still gets taken out.

slowmodem writes:
My question is, though, can the bees get trash out through those holes?

tecumseh:
I would guess (without seeing the device you are using) yes. I do know that if you totally close off the front entrance and place a queen excluder above the brood nest (replicating Jerry Hayes 'is a queen excluder a honey excluder' experiement) the trash still gets taken out.

Slowmodem,
Yes the bees can get trash and dead bees out through those holes. I have used them a couple winters now.
It's not easy for them to drag dead bees out through the holes, but they do manage to do it. I install it so that the holes are lower down, not the other way where the holes are higher up. That gives them a little less of a challenge when pulling out a dead bee.